Chapter Four: A Grim Realization

Dylin wandered through the pack's storehouse, cataloguing every item, and noting every depleted category. The fast approaching winter was going to be uncommonly harsh, by the signs nature gave. Small numbers of trees near the village had already began to turn, the verdant green fading to the yellows and reds of Autumn.

As the alpha ticked every item off of his list, he measured the excesses, and the goods they might barter for extra food for the pups and Omegas. It would be tight, but just maybe, maybe they wouldn't lose any pack members in the snows.

Ever since he... Ever since Fen had slept in his arms, Dylin had felt the black cloud of doom, inching ever nearer as the wheel of the year turned relentlessly. Even now, he felt the terror in his heart, fear of a creature he had no name for.

What did the allMother WANT?! How could She expect them to know what this quest was, this grand reason they were put on this land?

Dylin wanted to scream his questions at the sky, to the where She lay in the Nightlands, behind the canopy of stars. He wanted to howl to the moon, but knew deep inside that he would not receive any sort of answer. The cold light of heaven gave no reassurances, nor ever contained any solutions.

Dylan smelled his mother's presence long before he saw her, and knew that it wasn't a casual visit that she had in mind. Her scent markers betrayed her agitation, though he knew she would never show him anything but confidence in his abilities.

"Mother?" Dylin called, as he turned the corner, seeing Ana examining the piles of furs sitting on a high shelf. Her forest green eyes betrayed her pain. As did her scent.

"Dylin, " she murmured, her eyes roaming the shelves towering over their heads. She kept her gaze on the stockpiles, not meeting his eyes. "Is Fennis safe? Has something happened?"

"Yes, he is studying magic with Rhowena." Dylan was tempted to reach out to her, though it was unwise, not knowing how she was thinking. It would be foolishly bold of him to initiate contact when it was not requested. "We're just waiting for a sign. A signal from Gaïa for the journey we feel is coming."

"You fear the challenge." It wasn't a question. His mother knew him almost as well as Samule, and could sense his unease.

"I simply fear the unknown. Within and without." He sighed, not able to quantify the vague notion Fen was so much more than what they knew. So much more than even Rhowena could guess, with her decades of magic usage. It would be the reason their mission ended in either failure or success, the scope of Fen's gift deciding their fate.

"In the stories passed from packleader to packleader, a mention of hope sticks in my mind." Ana Cambel's voice echoed in the large room, giving her son a feeling of history and legend, of tales told under a dark moon, secrets whispered in hiding and history told through the unbroken chain of Alphas from the first Wolf himself.

"When I succeeded my father, he told me to watch. Watch carefully the signs, for when a Wolf black of fur and blue of eye meets the last of the Most Righteous, Hastor's deliverance is on hand."

Dylin felt his heart grow cold, knowing without a shadow of doubt that the Wolf the legend spoke of was Fen, his Fen. "Am I a Most Righteous Wolf?" He asked, his lips numb and stiff as he felt the weight of the prophecy drag him under. He had noticed in the pools of water, and the lone mirror of the pack, that his eyes, green as any righteous wolf, were like emeralds in his face, compared to the olive eyes of his mother.

Said olive eyes looked at him now, shining with infinite sadness, as she slowly nodded.

"What does it mean?" Dylin asked, a spark of anger lighting the tinder of his heart. He couldn't even protect the pack, let alone all of Hastor! How was he supposed to save the world, when he couldn't even save himself from the nightmares?

"I am sorry, my son." She gently combed through his shaggy hair, giving the small comfort of the Alpha's touch. Ana ran her wrist over the back of her son's neck, leaving the trail of her scent to protect him. "I see a troubled path ahead, but it is not mine to tread. It is the journey of you and your mate, the way of the Saviors."

"I can't do this," he whispered, a soft gasp of pain in the silent room. Tears fell from his eyes as his mother wiped them, the only comfort she could give in his moment of truth. "Mother, I... I am not strong enough. I'm not able to even save a pup..."

"Trust in him. Your mate will give you the strength." Ana kissed Dylan's forehead, a blessing against the trials to come. "The Black Wolf will know the way. May Gaia bring you home victorious."

As his mother left, Dylan shed a final tear of bitter regret. Regret he could not have the build of Samule, or the intelligence of Rhowena. Even the experience of Ana, so that he could complete the quest without losing his mate, without losing himself.

Dylan ran his hands below his eyes, wiping away the signs of weakness. He was the Most Righteous Wolf. On his shoulders rested the fate of the quest, and the fate of the World. If he fails, it isn't merely his life he forfeits. It is the lives of the next generation, the lives of his friends and family, the lives of every Wolf he's met.

As long as he can hold onto the faith that Fen would one day be his in mind and body, that they would meet beneath a bower of apple blossoms, and pledge their hearts to one another. That in the future to come, Fen's womb would swell with his litter, and their children would know what the freedom of Wolves was. The freedom that they had fought for by tooth and claw.

That was the thought in his mind, as he whisked his mate away to their meadow, before the doom descended upon them. So that he would have one last memory of Fen's smiling face, before the quest took the happiness from his eyes.